Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical ClubNovember 2014 Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club...

Fall New York City Gem & MineralShow is November 8-9, 2014

Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical ClubFounded 1886 Ë New York City, New York Ë Incorporated 1937

Volume 128, No. 11 Celebrating the International Year of Crystallography November 2014

November 12 Meeting:th

Sidney Horenstein: “Baltic Brown”Over a year ago Sidney and I had a

brief conversation about architectural stylesand building stones.I don't rememberhow Baltic Browng o t i n t o t h econversation, but Isaid that it wasrarely used in NYCbuildings and otherremarks I cannotremember. Thislecture is a responseto that.

Baltic Brown(Finnish: Rapakivi) granite is a hornblende-biotite granite containing large roundedcrystals of orthoclase mantled witholigoclase. The name has come to be usedmost frequently as a textural term where itimplies plagioclase rims around orthoclasein plutonic rocks. Rapakivi is Finnish for“crumbly rock”, because the different heatexpansion coefficients of the componentminerals make exposed Baltic Browncrumbly.

NYMC Member Sidney Horensteinrecently retired from the American Museumof Natural History as coordinator ofEnvironmental Programs and is nowEnvironmental Educator Emeritus. He isalso the natural history consultant to theBronx County Historical Society. He alsowas an adjunct lecturer in the Geology andGeography Department of Hunter College,CUNY for 25 years. He is the author ofarticles and books about geology (includingNew York) and now is co-authoring a bookabout the city's biodiversity.

He most recently (in February 2011)lectured to the Club about the history andgeology of the Fort Tryon Park area.

Send in Your 2015 Club DuesIt is time to send in your 2015 club membershipdues! All memberships run from January 1 toDecember 31 of each year (with a fewexceptions).If your mailing label says “2014”,you owe your 2015 dues. Please take the timenow to mail in your dues in order to preventuninterrupted delivery of your bulletin. A handyform appears on page 12. Dues are $25 forindividual, $35 for family. Mail to: MembershipCoordinator, N.Y. Mineralogical Club, P.O. Box77, Planetarium Station, NYC, NY 10024-0077.

By Mitch Portnoy

The annual Fall New York City Gem& Mineral Show will take place onNovember 8-9, 2014 (Saturday & Sunday)at the Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan (57th

Street between 9 and 10 Avenues).th th

The New York Mineralogical Club willcontinue its successful partnership with theshow sponsor, Excalibur MineralCorporation (Tony Nikischer, President)and host this event.

A list of thediverse dealers thatwill be selling theirfine wares at theshow can be foundon page 11 – youshould recognizemost of them but wed o have so menewcomers.

Since we haveno direct commercialinterest in the show,we do ask each dealer for a donation to theClub’s June Benefit Auction as a token ofthanks for all the work we do to helppromote and manage the Show. These itemstend to be the best lots in the whole auctionso please come and patronize thesetop-quality dealers.

The Club’s booth will be in its regularlocation (to the left as you enter the Show).There you can obtain a free Fall ShowSouvenir Card, a 2015 Club Calendar, orshow information, or just say hi to yourfellow NYMC friends.

This is also a good time to renew yourNYMC membership and pay your dues for2015 if you have not already done so.

If you did not make it to the OctoberRuby Banquet, this will be your chance toobtain some or all of the gifts that youmissed (while supplies last) including aruby information pack and a 2015 NYMC“Spectrum of Mineralogy” wall calendar.We will also be giving a calendar to each ofthe Show’s dealers as a gesture of thanks.

In order to encourage mineral and gementhusiasts to join the club, Tony Nikischerhas donated minerals that we will give to

new members! And they are nice, believeme! He has also regularly provided the freeminerals for children who attend theshow.

All current sets of note cards and CD-ROMS will be available for sale. Thesemake great gifts! Some of the sets’ variedthemes include ruby, malachite, lapis,quartz and light. (There may be other setsoffered as well, based on any inspiration Ihave in the weeks preceding the Show.)

Due to popular demand, we will onceagain be offeringGemstone FloatyPens! I thought themarket was saturatedbut apparently not. Mycontact is currentproducing them and hasguaranteed high color,mineral variety andoverall quality!

O t h e r C l u bpublications you canp u r chase inc lud e

Vivien Gornitz’ Introduction to MineralCrystallography and Mitch Portnoy’sNYMC Historic Stamp Album &Scrapbook.º º º See You at the Show! » » »

Issue Highlights

President’s Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Meeting Minutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2World of Minerals: Hidden Ocean. . . 3Diamond Shows a Wet Earth. . . . . . . 4Earth’s Oldest Rock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Rockhounding New York.. . . . . . . . . 6Missing Xenon Found. . . . . . . . . . . . 7Crystallography in the News. . . . . . . 7The 100: Three Ores. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Topics in Gemology: Fabergé (III). . 9More Fabergé Treasures.. . . . . . . . . 10Lost Fabergé Egg Discovered. . . . . 10Fall 2014 Show Information. . . . . 11Membership Renewal Form. . . . . 12Railyard Project (& Horenstein!). . . 13Bridgemanite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Silent Auction Prices Realized. . . . . 15Met Museum Plaza Redesign. . . . . . 16Club & Show Calendars. . . . . . . . . . 17

2 Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club November 2014

President’s MessageBy Mitch Portnoy

The annual banquet has come and goneand it was a fun and popular affair, judgingby the attendance and after-event feedback.Consider not missing it next year!

We do have some of the gift 2015Spectrum of Mineralogy calendarsremaining; I will bring them to theNovember meeting. If any of our out-of-town members would like one, let meknow. I can send you one while supplieslast. (Extras will be sold to the public at theupcoming NYC Gem & Mineral Show.)

Sid Horenstein will be lecturing to us atthe next meeting about Baltic Brown, arenowned building stone. In line with that,the evening’s game will be about brownminerals and gems. (Clever, right!) And thegame winner will get a sample of BalticBrown!

Club Meeting “Minutes” for October 8, 2014 (Ruby Banquet)By Vivien Gornitz, SecretaryAttendance: 75 (!!)President Mitch Portnoy presided.Announcements� The evening began at 6:00 with a

cocktail hour and silent auction. Over$1,150 was raised to help defray thetotal cost of the banquet. (See p. 15 forlisting with prices realized.)

� Dinner followed which included atimely tribute to Derek Jeter, a video ofJoan Sutherland singing the JewelSong from Gounod’s Faust and a RubyLocality games.

� Game prizes included red candlesand/or large glass rubies for thewinners at each table.

� The “meeting” started and the verylarge number of banquet first timers(15!) were welcomed.

� The various historical events andbirthdays that occurred on October 8were announced as well other morerecent news. The week following isdedicated to earth science.

� A video about searching for rubies inSoutheast Asia was shown.

� The new Club Membership Card for2015 was presented and given tomembers who renewed theirmembership. It features a backgroundof colorful worldwide minerals.

� Mitch reminded the audience about thevarious items available for sale (e.g.,ruby note cards, CD-ROMS) as well asall the “freebies” (e.g., periodic tableposters, NYMC post cards).

� In honor of the 75 anniversary of theth

film “The Wizard of Oz” (Rememberthe ruby slippers?), special NYMCRuby Medals were given to RayEginton and Susan Rudich for theirruby jewelry/accessories.

� The evening’s annual awards werepresented:) AppreciationThe Kucera Family, Roland Scal) Special AppreciationNaomi Sarna, Nik Nikiforou) EnthusiasmCheryl Neary, Vesta Sue Rhodes) Marco PoloThe Long Island Contingent) AFMS Bulletin ArticleVivien Gornitz, Otis Kidwell Burger

� A quick overview of the Club’supcoming events and meeting lectureswas given. The group was alsoreminded that 2015 is the InternationalYear of Light as well as the 100th

Anniversary of General Relativity.� The banquet gifts (folder, calendar,

drinking glass) were presented. Inaddition a special door prize (a giftcard to Ruby Tuesday, the restaurant)was won by Alicia Andrejczuk.

� Mitch then introduced the evening’sspeaker and showed everyone thespecial gift being given to him, a smallframed poster about the minerals ofBurma.

� After the lecture, Mitch highlighted tomany people to thank for the evening’ssuccess.

� Next year’s banquet will have a garnetand NYC subway theme.

Special Lecture: Dr. George Harlow“The Mogok Stone Tract, Myanmar: AMineralogical Wonderland!”

The small southeastern Asian countryof Myanmar (formerly Burma) hashistorically been a fabled source of preciousgems, now further enhanced by Dr. GeorgeHarlow’s recent research and discoveries.Dr. George Harlow, Curator of Mineralsand Gems at the American Museum ofNatural History, traveled last November tothis once restricted region, accompanied byMuseum colleagues Dr. James Webster and

Jamie Newman. Entering “Ruby Land’, theymade field trips to several mines, climbedcliffs, sampled gravels, and visited local gemmarkets. Although due to restrictive U.S.laws, they were unable to bring back anyrubies, they could collect other mineralspecimens for the Museum and for research.

Not only does the Mogok region boastlovely scenery, exotic temples, and colorfulgem markets, but also earns its reputation asa mineralogical wonderland. George Harlowpointed out that while Mogok’s fame mayrest on its long production of fine “pigeon-blood” rubies and bright red spinels, theregion also hosts a dazzling variety of otherminerals, many of gem quality: sapphire,moonstone, topaz, cat’s-eye scapolite,danburite, aquamarine, peridot, blue apatite,and elbaite tourmaline, among others. Thelow iron content of Mogok rubies allowsthem to fluoresce and intensifies their brightred color, augmenting their value as agemstone.

(Continues next page)

Members in the News� Susan Rudich will finally be selling her

jewelry and some enamels at the veryfirst sale at the 92 Street Y onnd

November 23-24, 2014.� Elyse Zorn Karlin and Gail Brett

Levine enthralled GIA Alumni(Washington, D.C.) members inSeptember with their presentation “Twodifferent views…what we have learnedin 80+ years of studying jewelry.”Covering the alphabet from A to Z thetwo provided a jewelry historian’s andappraiser’s thoughts on what makes apiece of jewelry distinctive.

� Sidney Horenstein’s latest book,“Concrete Jungle,” is now available.

� American Elements CEO, MichaelSilver, recently discussed the rare earthelements being used in smartphones andother high tech products with CoryJohnson on Bloomberg TV. He was alsoone of the featured speakers at the Feast,a conference in Brooklyn on October 11discussing a brighter future.

Welcome New Members!Olga Gonzalez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . NYC, NYCandie Smith. . . . . . . . . Staten Island, NYAnd Welcome Back to:Raymond Hakimi. . . . . . . Great Neck, NYDominic Roccio. . . . . . . . . . . . . Bronx, NY

Receive your Bulletin through email!Contact me at [email protected] –Mitch Portnoy, Editor.

November 2014 Bulletin of the New York Mineralogical Club 3

The World of MineralsThe World of Minerals is a monthly column written by Dr. Vivien Gornitz on timely and interesting topics relatedto geology, gemology, mineralogy, mineral history, etc.

A Hidden Ocean in the Earth’s Interior?Jules Verne, in his “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”

(1864), envisioned vast subterranean seas inhabited by myriadprehistoric creatures. Perhaps not entirely far-fetched: recentdiscoveries hint at the possibility of water stored deep in theEarth’s mantle, although not in liquid form, but locked insteadinside a mineral unknown at the Earth’s surface.

As one descends deep inside the Earth’s interior, theincreasing temperatures and pressures transform familiar mineralsinto new ones known only from high-pressure laboratoryexperiments or rare inclusions from deep-mantle diamonds. Themantle, a vast region extending from 40 to 2,890 km (25 to 1,800mi) depth, is sub-divided further into upper mantle, transition zone,and lower mantle.

In the mantle’s transition zone (410 km to 660 km; 255-410mi), the intense pressures squeeze upper mantle minerals into moretightly-packed lattices.Thus olivine becomeswadsleyite, and garnetplus pyroxene change intomajorite garnet. In thelower part of the transitionzone, the even higherpressures force a muchdenser configuration ofatoms, turning the olivine

2 4polymorph, wadsleyite, into ringwoodite, (Mg,Fe ) SiO , which2+

has the spinel structure. Until now, ringwoodite was only createdunder high-pressure in the laboratory, or found in meteorites thathad suffered intense shock pressures during collisions in space, orwith the Earth. But ringwoodite has now been found in a tinyinside diamond.

While most diamonds form in the upper part of the mantle andare transported to the surface by means of kimberlite eruptions,some originate lower down, as indicated by the presence of certaininclusions such as majorite garnet, ferropericlase, MgSi- and CaSi-perovskites, and now also ringwoodite.

The ringwoodite is enclosed in a tiny ~40 micrometer-sized,greenish inclusion within a 5 mm long, 0.09 g (0.45 ct) light-brown, irregular diamond crystal from Juina, Brazil. The diamondwas found in a placer deposit from the Rio Vinte e Uno de Abril,downstream from a kimberlite pipe. The crystal has been partiallydissolved and plastically deformed. The lack of identifiablenitrogen classifies it as a type IIa diamond. Sophisticated chemicaltests indicate that the inclusion consists of two halves, one rich incalcium, the other in iron. X-ray diffraction and Ramonspectroscopy identify the Fe-rich component as ringwoodite; its

3calcic companion as CaSiO -walstromite . Infrared peaks*

characteristic of OH indicate that the ringwoodite contains asignificant amount of water. Further analyses suggest an estimated

2H O content of 1.4 to 1.5 percent.Assuming that the hydrous ringwoodite is typical of the

mantle region sampled by the diamond, and in combination withtheoretical limits of how much water other associated mineralscould hold, the estimated maximum water content of the lower partof the transition zone comes close to 1 percent. This would amount

to a total of 1.4 billion billion metric tons of water—a massequivalent to that of all of the world’s oceans combined! However,still to be established is how representative that minute inclusionis of the entire transition zone. Even if not all portions of themantle are equally water-rich, some portions appear to be muchwetter than previously believed. Also, remaining to be determinedis the ultimate source of the water—whether primordial, datingback to the early days of the planet, or whether carried down by adeep subduction process.Further ReadingGornitz, V., 2014. Diamond Part II—Beyond mantle keels:

Windows into the deep Earth. Bulletin of the New YorkMineralogical Club, July/August 2014.

Keppler, H. 2014., 2014. Earth’s deep water reservoir. Nature507:174-175.

Lovett, R.A., 2014. Tiny diamond impurity reveals water riches ofdeep Earth. http://www.nature.com/news/tiny-diamond-impurity-reveals-water-riches/

Pearson, D.G. et al., 2014. Hydrous transition zone indicated byringwoodite included within diamond. Nature 507:221-224.

Banquet Lecture About Burmese Minerals(Continued from previous page)

This mineralogical diversity is a consequence of platetectonics—a long history of multiple plate collisions thatculminated with the collision of the Indian Plate with the Asianmainland, around 50 millionyears ago. These tectonicupheavals transformed mudsand limestones into schists,gneisses, and marbles, andalso introduced igneousintrusions. Heated solutionsgenerated by metamorphismand igneous activitymigrated through the rocks,further altering themchemically. This created a multiplicity of geological environmentsin which an alphabet of minerals from albite (moonstone) to zirconcould form.

Gem minerals occur in association with specific rock types.For example, Mogok rubies and spinels typically occur in whitemarble, along with pargasite and moonstone. Syenite, a silica-poorgranite-like rock, hosts sapphire, while peridot appears in closeproximity to metamorphic rocks, where severe faulting andshearing had “squirted up” layers of altered peridotites. Numerousmineralogical curiosities abound. Moonstone, an alkali feldsparusually associated with igneous rocks, occurs in marble. Green(not bluish) amazonite turns out to be orthoclase, not microcline!Painite and sinhalite, two rare minerals, formed at the marginbetween granite pegmatite and marble. They were subsequentlycoated with ruby. Other rare or unusual minerals includeballiranoite (cancrinite group), a colorless sodalite, and deep bluecalcite in moonstone.

The sample taste of this mineralogical treasure-chest was afeast for the eyes. The wide variety of minerals within a small areacoupled with unexpected associations will provide ample food forthought and material for many years of further research.

2 3 9 Walstromite is BaCa Si O , triclinic.*


Diamond Shows Earth’s Interior is All WetBy Becky Oskin

A battered diamond that survived a trip from “hell” confirmsa long-held theory: Earth’s mantle holds an ocean’s worth ofwater.

“It’s actually the confirmation that there is a very, very largeamount of water that’s trapped in a really distinct layer in the deepEarth,” said Graham Pearson, lead study author and a geochemistat the University of Alberta in Canada. The findings werepublished today (March 12) in the journal Nature.

The worthless-looking diamond encloses a tiny piece of anolivine mineral called ringwoodite, and it’s the first time themineral has been found on Earth’s surface in anything other thanmeteorites or laboratories. Ringwoodite only forms under extremepressure, such as the crushing load about 320 miles (515kilometers) deep in the mantle.What’s in the Mantle?

Most of Earth’s volume is mantle, the hot rock layer betweenthe crust and the core. Too deep to drill, the mantle’s compositionis a mystery leavened by two clues: meteorites, and hunks of rockheaved up by volcanoes. First, scientists think the composition of

the Earth’s mantle is similar to that of meteorites called chondrites,which are chiefly made of olivine. Second, lava belched byvolcanoes sometimes taps the mantle, bringing up chunks of oddminerals that hint at the intense heat and pressure olivine enduresin the bowels of the Earth.

In recent decades, researchers have also recreated mantlesettings in laboratories, zapping olivine with lasers, shootingminerals with massive guns and squeezing rocks between diamondanvils to mimic the Earth’s interior.

These laboratory studies suggest that olivine morphs into avariety of forms corresponding to the depth at which it is found.The new forms of crystal accommodate the increasing pressures.Changes in the speed of earthquake waves also support this model.Seismic waves suddenly speed up or slow down at certain depthsin the mantle. Researcher think these speed zones arise fromolivine’s changing configurations. For example, 323 to 410 miles(520 to 660 km) deep, between two sharp speed breaks, olivine isthought to become ringwoodite. But until now, no one had directevidence that olivine was actually ringwoodite at this depth.

“Most people (including me) never expected to see such asample. Samples from the transition zone and lower mantle areexceedingly rare and are only found in a few, unusual diamonds,”Hans Keppler, a geochemist at the University of Bayreuth inGermany, wrote in a commentary also published in Nature today.Earth’s Deepest Ocean

The diamond from Brazil confirms that the models are correct:Olivine is ringwoodite at this depth, a layer called the mantletransition zone. And it resolves a long-running debate about waterin the mantle transition zone. The ringwoodite is 1.5 percent water,present not as a liquid but as hydroxide ions (oxygen and hydrogenmolecules bound together). The results suggest there could be avast store of water in the mantle transition zone, which stretchesfrom 254 to 410 miles (410 to 660 km) deep.

“It translates into a very, very large mass of water,approaching the sort of mass of water that’s present in all theworld’s ocean,” Pearson told Live Science’s Our Amazing Planet.

Plate tectonics recycles Earth’s crust by pushing and pullingslabs of oceanic crust into subduction zones, where it sinks into themantle. This crust, soaked by the ocean, ferries water into themantle. Many of these slabs end up stuck in the mantle transitionzone. “We think that a significant portion of the water in themantle transition zone is from the emplacement of these slabs,”

Graham Pearson holds a diamond that yields new clues about the presence oflarge amounts of water deep beneath the Earth. | Siemens/University of Alberta

A diamond from Juína, Brazil, containing a water-rich inclusion of the olivine mineralringwoodite.

Partial cross-section of the Earth showing the location of ringwoodite in themantle.


Pearson said. “The transition zone seems to be a graveyard ofsubducted slabs.”

Keppler noted that it’s possible the volcanic eruption thatbrought the deep diamond to Earth’s surface may have sampled anunusually water-rich part of the mantle, and that not all of thetransition-zone layer may be as wet as indicated by theringwoodite.

“If the source of the magma is an unusual mantle reservoir,there is the possibility that, at other places in the transition zone,ringwoodite contains less water than the sample found by Pearsonand colleagues,” Keppler wrote. “However, in light of this sample,models with anhydrous, or water-poor, transition zones seem ratherunlikely.”Ride on a Rocket

A violent volcanic eruption called a kimberlite quickly carriedthis particular diamond from deep in the mantle. “The eruption ofa kimberlite is analogous to dropping a Mentos mint into a bottleof soda,” Pearson said. “It’s a very energetic, gas-charged reactionthat blasts its way to Earth’s surface.”

The tiny, green crystal, scarred from its 325-mile (525 km)trip to the surface, was bought from diamond miners in Juína,Brazil. The mine’s ultradeep diamonds are misshapen and beatenup by their long journey. “They literally look like they’ve been tohell and back,” Pearson said. The diamonds are usually discardedbecause they carry no commercial value, he said, but forgeoscientists, the gems provide a rare peek into Earth’s innards.[Shine On: Photos of Dazzling Mineral Specimens]

The ringwoodite discovery was accidental, as Pearson and hisco-authors were actually searching for a means of dating thediamonds. The researchers think careful sample preparation is thekey to finding more ringwoodite, because heating ultradeepdiamonds, as happens when scientists polish crystals for analysis,causes the olivine to change shape.

“We think it’s possible ringwoodite may have been found byother researchers before, but the way they prepared their samplescaused it to change back to a lower-pressure form,” Pearson said.Source: Huffington Post Science 03/12/2014

Earth’s Oldest Rock Dates Back 4.4 B YearsBy Becky Oskin

Ever heard this life advice? When solving a big problemseems impossible, break it into smaller steps.

Well, scientists just took one of geology’s biggestcontroversies and shrunk it down to atomic size. By zapping singleatoms of lead in a tiny zircon crystal from Australia, researchershave confirmed the crystal is the oldest rock fragment ever foundon Earth — 4.375 billion years old, plus or minus 6 million years.

“We’ve proved that the chemical record inside these zirconsis trustworthy,” said John Valley, lead study author and ageochemist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The findingswere published today (Feb. 23) in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Confirmation of the zircon age holds enormous implicationsfor models of early Earth. Trace elements in the oldest zirconsfrom Australia’s Jack Hills range suggest they came fromwater-rich, granite-like rocks such as granodiorite or tonalite, otherstudies have reported. That means Earth cooled quickly enough forsurface water and continental-type rocks just 100 million yearsafter the moon impact, the massive collision that formed theEarth-moon system.

“The zircons show us the earliest Earth was more like theEarth we know today,” Valley said. “It wasn’t an inhospitableplace.”

Dubious HistoryZircons are one of the toughest minerals on the planet. The

ancient Australian crystals date back to just 165 million years afterEarth formed, and have survived tumbling trips down rivers, burialdeep in the crust, heating, squeezing and a tectonic ride back to thesurface. The Australian zircons, from the Jack Hills, aren’t theoldest rocks on Earth — those are in Canada — but about 3 billionyears ago, the minerals eroded out some of Earth’s first continentalcrust and became part of a riverbed.

Geologists have carefully sorted out more than 100,000microscopic Jack Hills zircons that date back to Earth’s earlyepochs, from 3 billion to nearly 4.4 billion years ago. (The planetis 4.54 billion years old.) The crystals contain microscopicinclusions, such as gas bubbles, that provide a unique window intoconditions on Earth as life arose and the first continents formed.

Just three of the very oldest zircons have been found, ones thatdate back to almost 4.4 billion years ago. Their extreme age alwaysmakes the dates suspect, because of possible radiation damage.The radiation damage means the zircons could have beencontaminated during their long lifetime.

Zircons hold minute amounts of two naturally occurringuranium isotopes — isotopes are atoms of the same element withdifferent numbers of neutrons. Uranium radioactively decays tolead at a steady rate. Counting the number of lead isotopes is howscientists date the crystals. But as the uranium kicks out leadatoms, the radioactive decay releases alpha particles, which candamage the crystals, creating defects. These defects mean fluidsand outside elements can infiltrate the crystals, casting doubt onany conclusions about early Earth based on the zircons.

More important, uranium and lead can move around within acrystal, or even escape or enter the zircon. This mobility can throwoff the lead isotope count used to calculate the zircon ages, and isthe source of the decades-long controversy over the Jack Hillszircons’ Methuselah lifespan.

“If there’s a process by where lead can move from one part ofthe crystal to another place, then the place where lead isconcentrated will have an older apparent age and the place fromwhere it moves will have a younger apparent age,” Valley said.Atom by Atom

Valley and his co-authors hope to end the debate by showingthat even though one of the oldest Jack Hills zircons sufferedradiation damage, the lead atoms stayed in place. The researcherspainstakingly counted individual lead atoms within theoldest-known zircon with a recently developed technique called

Timeline showing major events in Earth history.


atom-probe tomography. Inside the zircon, lead atoms clusteredtogether in damage zones just a few nanometers wide. Imaginecliques of teens during high school lunch — like teenagers, no leadatoms had left their zones.

“We’ve demonstrated this zircon is a closed geochemicalsystem, and we’ve never been able to do that before,” Valley said.“There’s no question that many zircons do suffer radiation damage,but I think relative to these zircons, this should settle it once andfor all,” Valley told Live Science’s Our Amazing Planet.

The key finding, that lead atoms stick close to home insidethis primeval zircon, means age estimates based on uranium-leaddating techniques are accurate, the researchers report. The leadhasn’t wiggled around enough to throw off the ages. A typical agemeasurement, made with a machine called an ion probe, zapszircon segments that are thousands of times larger than the damageclusters.

“This careful piece of work should settle the debate becauseit shows that indeed there is some mobility of lead, which washypothesized to result in dates that were too old, but the scale ofmobility is nanometers,” said Samuel Bowring, a geochemist atMIT, who was not involved in the study. “Even the smallestvolumes analyzed with the ion probe average out theheterogeneities,” or variations within the zircon.

The new atom-probe technique, while extremely laborious,can also be used to address questions of reliability at other siteswhere extremely old rocks have been found, the researchers said.

“Good zircons are forever, and what this does is help usseparate the wheat from the chaff in a way we could never dobefore,” Valley said.Source: Huffington Post 02/24/2014

Available Now!Rockhounding New York:A Guide to the State’s Best Rockhounding SitesBy Robert BeardWith this informative guide, you can explore the mineral-rich stateof New York, from the beaches to the mountains. It describes thestates’ best rockhounding sites and covers popular and commercialsites as well as numerous little-known areas. This handy guide alsodescribes how to collect specimens, includes maps and directionsto each site, and lists rockhound clubs in the state. RockhoundingNew York offers a complete introduction to this many-facetedhobby and is an invaluable sourcebook.

Jack Hills, Australia, where rocks were found to contain the oldest knownminerals on Earth, a 4.4 billion-year-old zircon.

Cathodoluminescence image of a 400-micrometer zircon and the 3-D mapmade by atom-probe tomography of a group of ~10-nanometer clusters ofradiogenic atoms of lead.


Mysteriously ‘Missing’ Xenon Gas Found InEarth’s CoreBy Charles Q. Choi

Mysteriously, most of the gas xenon that scientists expectedto find in Earth’s atmosphere is missing. Now, researchers say theymight have the answer to this puzzle: This noble gas, whichusually does not bond with other atoms, may chemically react withiron and nickel in Earth’s core, where it’s held.

Xenon is a noble gas, so, like other noble gases, such ashelium and neon, it is mostly chemically inert. Scientists have longanalyzed xenon to study the evolution of Earth and its atmosphere.

Strangely, atmospheric levels of xenon are more than 90percent less than scientists would have predicted based on levelsof other noble gases such as argon and krypton.

“The missing xenon paradox is a long-standing question,” saidstudy author Yanming Ma, a computational physicist and chemistat Jilin University in Changchun, China.

Although some researchers have suggested that this “missing”xenon may have escaped from the atmosphere into space, themajority of scientists think it is hidden in the Earth’s interior.However, investigators have long failed to find a way in whichEarth might incorporate this gas into chemically stable compounds—. For instance, there is no known way for ice or sediments mightto rically capture xenon on Earth, meaning it should just escapeinto the atmosphere.

Past research had suggested Earth’s core might hold xenon.However, “all the previous attempts to implicate the capture ofxenon in the Earth’s core have failed,” Ma said.

Earth’s core, which contains about one-third of the planet’smass, is made of iron and nickel. In 1997, scientists reportedexperiments that suggested xenon would not react with iron.

“Through a careful analysis of their work, however, we foundthat the experiment was carried out only up to 150 gigapascals, apressure far from the Earth’s inner-core pressure of 360gigapascals,” Ma said. (In comparison, 1 gigapascal is more thannine times greater than the pressure at the bottom of the MarianaTrench, the deepest part of the ocean.)

This past research also theoretically extrapolated what mighthappen if xenon were trapped at the high pressures found inEarth’s inner core, and concluded that xenon would not bond withiron. However, those prior studies assumed xenon would form aso-called “hexagonal close-packed lattice” — essentially, a latticeof atoms resembling a solid whose bottom and top faces arehexagons and whose side faces are rectangles. This assumption

was made because iron atoms normally form this kind of structurewith other iron atoms.

However, Ma and his colleagues reasoned that, if thestructures of iron-xenon compounds are different, they could forma compound. Their calculations now suggest that at the extremetemperatures and pressures found in Earth’s core, xenon can bondwith both iron and nickel. The most stable of these molecules are

3ones with one xenon atom and three iron atoms — XeFe — or one

3 3xenon atom and three nickel atoms — XeNi . XeFe forms cubic

3lattices, while XeNi forms lattices whose top and bottom faces arehexagons and whose side faces are triangles.

These findings suggest Earth’s core may hold all of themissing xenon. “We do hope future high-pressure experiments canbe carried out to confirm our predictions,” Ma said. Such highpressures could be achieved by squeezing objects betweendiamonds.

However, for those high-pressure experiments, “a hightemperature of more than 6,000ºK (10,340º F or 5,727ºC) must beapplied. Such a high temperature, if not properly controlled, caneasily lead to the breaking of the diamonds used for pressuregeneration. This might be the major obstacle for the experiment.”

It remains uncertain what effects, if any, these xenoncompounds might have had on the evolution of Earth’s core. “Thisneeds to be more deeply analyzed,” Ma said.Source: LiveScience.com 04/21/2014

Crystallography in the News

A century after Max von Laue received a Nobel prize fordiscovering the diffraction of X-rays by crystals, X-raycrystallography has made its mark in almost every field of science.In this special issue, Nature celebrated the International Year ofCrystallography by examining the impact of von Laue’s methodand its descendants.

The commissioned cover for its special issue was created byartist Viktor Koen to celebrate 100 years of X-ray crystallography.Koen cleverly assembled several key elements to create a beautifulpiece. The face in the background is William Lawrence Bragg,who shaped the field with his law of x-ray diffraction in 1912. Thiswork won him a Nobel prize (with his father) in 1915.

The overall aim was to nod to history on the cover and alsogive it a contemporary modern feel to aptly celebrate theanniversary.

Earth has multiple layers: the crust, the mantle, the liquid outer core and the solidinner core.


Collector’s Series – “The 100"The 100 is a monthly feature of interest to mineral collectors written by Bill Shelton, based upon his many years of experienceas a mineral collector, educator, author, appraiser, philanthropist and dealer. Comments as well as suggestions for new topicsare most welcome. Contact him at [email protected].

Three OresAmong my list of “100”, galena ranks about sixth and

sphalerite is close behind based on their number of localities permindat.org. Molybdenite has a fourth as many reported localities.They all constitute very common, important ores. Due to theireconomic importance, these minerals may be over-reported andappear to be more common than they really are. Of course,virtually all of the “100” are in fact relatively common or theywouldn’t be on the list!

Galena was present at Thomaston Dam, CT with fluorite,sphalerite, quartz, etc. but I believe the area is unavailable forcollecting anymore. An unusual place to find galena is a pegmatite,yet Connecticut and New York have both produced occasionalsamples. Note here the Bedford region and the Bethel area. ClassicAmerican localities include Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri,Wisconsin and Illinois. The Rossie (NY) area is significant as well.Colorado has also produced fine pieces. England, Scotland,Germany and Australia are notable worldwide localities. Crystalsand cleavages are readily available and can be fine additions to acollection. In secondary deposits, the mineral zones may havegalena as a primary material. Then, we can expect lead mineralslike cerussite, anglesite and even wulfenite to occur. Collectorsalways prefer the colorful specimens from these areas.

Molybdenite, perhaps less common in collections, canprovide some nice specimens and diligent searching will probablyhelp you find an example for your collection. Bear in mind thatgood crystals are considered rare by some authorities. VariousCanadian deposits have produced rather large, fine examples.Small but fine examples are known locally from NY and NJ in theFranklin marble. Other American localities include Washingtonand Colorado. Worldwide, we find Japan, Australia, Russia andKorea have produced nice pieces. Recently, I have seen finematerial for sale from Australia at the Tucson show. Matrixspecimens are definitely a rarity.

Among these three minerals, which are all sulfides, sphaleritehas the distinction of being found in transparent and translucentexamples at some localities, notably Spain. Sulfides in general areboth opaque and non-fluorescent but sphalerite proves to be anexception in both respects in some specimens. With a wide rangeof colors and various crystal habits, sphalerite is a good collector-type mineral and a fine display could be produced using only this

species. Further, sphalerite has well-documented fluorescence –orange (widespread; blue, green and red are all noted, mainly inlong wave. Franklin, NJ has pink, blue, red and orange varietiespresent, which is quite remarkable. Balmat, NY and Bisbee, AZare other American localities where fluorescence is known.

Specimens from various localities are found in manycollections – my favorite place is Dal’negorsk (Russia) because ofthe wide variety of habits one can find there. Elsewhere, someclassic worldwide samples are known from Czechoslovakia,England, Germany, Mexico, Romania, Switzerland and Spain. Itremains a curious but true fact that simple crystals with readily-identifiable forms are indeed a rarity in nature. We, as a society,have frequentcontact with zinc(a product usuallym a d e f r o msphalerite) in theform of galvanizediron and brass.Many batteries,p a i n t s a n dmedicines makeuse of zinc. Ther a r e r m e t a l scadmium, indium,g a l l i u m a n dgermanium areproduced fromsphalerite in most cases. Zinc, the 24 most common element, isth

widely used; as a sulfide it is used in televisions, X-ray screens,and fluorescent lights. Even gemstones exist – they can be quitesizable and very beautiful. Mostly, we see reddish-orangeexamples available for sale.

Galena with Sphalerite from the Ballard Mine, Baxter Springs, Picher Field,Tri-State District, Cherokee Co., Kansas. 4" x 2 1/2".

Sphalerite ribbon with calcite and willemite, Buckwheatdump, Franklin, New Jersey.

Molybdenite from Kingsgate, Gough Co., New South Wales, Australia


Topics in GemologyTopics in Gemology is a monthly column written by Diana Jarrett, GG, RMV, based on gemological questions posed to herover the years by beginners and experts alike. Contact her at dianajarrett.com.

Uncovering Fabergé (Part III)Continued from September 2014 issue

ICONIC MOMENTS IN FABERGÉ HISTORY1842: The House of Fabergé is founded in 1842 in St.

Petersburg.1846: Peter Carl Fabergé is born in Saint Petersburg, Russia.1870: Fabergé joins father Gustav Fabergé’s jewelry firm.1885: Fabergé creates the first imperial Easter egg for the

Romanovs.1916: The last imperial egg is completed for the imperial

family.1920: Peter Carl Fabergé dies in Switzerland “of a broken

heart.”1951: The Fabergé heirs lose the rights to produce designs

bearing the Fabergé name.2007: The Fabergé brand is reunited with the Fabergé family

name.2009: The Les Fabuleuses Collection debuts.

Continued FascinationIn 1951, the Fabergé heirs lost the rights to produce designs

bearing the Fabergé name, but the blow did not quell theirdetermination to perpetuate the legacy and legend of Fabergé. By2007, the brand’s name and philosophy had been reunited with thefamily name. In 2009, a high-end jewelry collection, LesFabuleuses, was launched. The focus of this 21st-centurycollection, developed under the guidance of great- granddaughtersTatiana and Sarah Fabergé, pays homage to the spirit of Peter CarlFaberge. The detailed, jewel-encrusted pieces are more likeminiature works of art that prompt the immediate awe of anyonewho sees them.

CABS OF A DIFFERENT COLOREver the innovator, the House of Faberge in October 2013 embarkedupon an eye-catchingpromotional campaignthat will be in circulationfor one year in London.The traditional Englishtaxis driving around theW e s t E n d a n dKnightsbridge got adazzling color boost fromF a b e r g e v i a t h eembellishment of brightlycolored gemstone andring images from Faberge’s Emotion collection, reminders of thewhimsical nature that still takes priority at Faberge.

As emblems of a gilded age of excess, the works of Fabergéhave reignited the imaginations of jewelry fans who gravitatetoward the wit and workmanship of these dazzlers. Museumsacross the globe continue to play host to various collections ofcoveted Fabergé items, including the Houston Museum of NaturalScience’s exhibit, “Fabergé: A Brilliant Vision,” in 2013. Theexhibit included some 350 items from the McFerrin familycollection, considered to be one of the world’s most significant

private assemblages of Fabergé items. New York’s MetropolitanMuseum of Art even boasts a long-term installation simply titled“Fabergé,” which includes works commissioned by the Romanovfamily and three imperial Easter eggs from the Matilda GeddingsGray collection. In addition, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’collection of Fabergé objects will travel to the Montreal Museumof Fine Arts for an exhibit running June 7 through October 5.Meanwhile, visitors and locals alike can now visit, byappointment, St. Petersburg’s newly opened Fabergé Museum atthe Shuvalov Palace, a profound tribute to Fabergé in his historicbirthplace.

With the brand’s message so dependent upon the creativegenius of its original designer, Fabergé’s death could’ve easilysignaled the end of his legacy. But the frenzied adoration that heincurred during his lifetime sustains the house’s momentum eventoday. Now, Fabergé’s name alone evokes a sense of perfectionismthat manifests itself in bejeweled objects, inspiring the house’scontinued re-emergence as a vibrant luxury brand.

A three-compartment vanity case designed by Fabergé in 1910.

Fabergé’s Nobel Ice egg and “surprise’ watch pendant, originallycompleted in 1913.


Additional Fabergé Masterworks

Contemporary Hibiscus CuffSterling silver, 18-karat yellow and white gold and is set with2,387 natural and untreated white, pink and yellow diamonds

and rubies totaling 54.34ct. Fabergé's first high jewelry collection, Les Fabuleuses, is

split into three main categories: Les Fleurs de Fabergé(above), Les Fables de Fabergé, and Les Fauves de Fabergé.

An Imperial Presentation Box Made of gold and decorated with enamel and diamonds, thebox features the cipher of Tsar Nicholas II on the cover. The

Emperor presented the box to Leon Bourgeois, a Frenchpolitician and statesman in 1902. Bourgeois was one of 90foreigners to receive a snuffbox with the Emperor’s initials.

Chief Workmaster Mikhail PerkhinSt. Petersburg, 1899 – 1908

An Imperial Clockof circular form, enameled blue over a wavy guillochage, the

dial offset to the top, the silver-gilt bezel decorated withguilloche motif radiating trails of triumphal laurels in gold,

the beaded edge surmounted by a silver-gilt lovers’ knot, thecircular strut supported on two scroll feet.

Chief Workmaster: Michael PerkhinSt. Petersburg, before 1896

Height: 10.3 cmProvenance: Purchased jointly by Tsar Nicholas II and

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for 275 roubles in 1895.

Lost Fabergé Imperial Easter Egg DiscoveredBy U.S. Scrap Metal DealerLONDON, March 19 (UPI) – A U.S. scrap metal dealer intendingto melt down an ornament for its gold was shocked to discover itwas a $33 million Fabergé egg, a British expert said.

Kieran McCarthy of London jeweler Wartski said the scrapmetal dealer, who wished to remain anonymous, bought the goldegg for $13,302 from an antiques dealer about a decade ago andhad planned to melt it down and sell the metal, but the project wasput on hold when he was unable to find a buyer, the Telegraphreported Wednesday.

McCarthy said the egg stayed in the man’s home until anight in 2012 when he decided to Google “egg” and “VacheronConstantin,” the name etched on the timepiece inside the egg.

The man discovered a Telegraph article from earlier thatyear that included an interview with McCarthy and a picture of theegg in his possession.

“He saw the article and recognized his egg in the picture. Heflew straight over to London – the first time he had ever been toEurope – and came to see us. He hadn’t slept for days,” McCarthysaid. “He brought pictures of the egg and I knew instantaneouslythat was it. I was flabbergasted – it was like being Indiana Jonesand finding the Lost Ark.”

McCarthy said he flew to the United States and verified theegg.

“I examined it and said, ‘You have an Imperial FabergéEaster Egg.’ And he practically fainted. He literally fell to the floorin astonishment,” he said.

The egg, created by Carl Faberé for Tsar Alexander III in1887, was purchased by Wartski on behalf of a Fabergé collector.

McCarthy said the scrap dealer is “petrified” of hisnewfound wealth becoming public knowledge.

“He’s from another world entirely. It’s a world of diners andpick-up trucks, real blue-collar America, and he and his partner arestill stunned by all this,” he said. “When I saw them in January,they hadn’t moved out but they were going to, although I think itwas just to a bigger house around the corner. They’ve also boughta new car.”Source: OddNews.com March 19, 2014

The Mineralogical Record is attempting to produce a supplementfeaturing minerals from Eastern US collectors. For details, costs, etc.,contact Joe Polityka at [email protected] or (610) 398-2334.


Fall 2014 Mineral Show Lectures

Old Rocks Help Explain How Moon Was Born

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL. (AP) — A new study strengthens thenotion that our moon was created by a collision between Earth anda planet-sized object some 4.5 billion years ago.

German scientists studied moon rocks gathered byastronauts nearly a half-century ago in the Apollo 11, 12 and 16missions. They analyzed various kinds of oxygen atoms and foundthe moon rocks have a different makeup than Earth rocks do. Thatfits with the idea that the moon would contain material from theobject that struck Earth.

The results also suggest that the moon may be a 50-50 mixof material from this object and from Earth.

The study was published Thursday, June 5, 2014 by the journalScience.

The words of Helen Mirren on . . .

GOD

“The only time I’ve thought, “Wow, maybethere is a god,” was when I saw an

exhibition of spectacularly gorgeousminerals from the bowels of the Earth.”

At the Fall 2014 Mineral ShowPick Up Your Free

2015 Club Meeting & Event Calendar

2014 Fall Gem & Mineral Show Booth Roster

1 New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.

2 Aurora Mineral Corp

3 Highland Rock & Fossil

4 Amazon Imports

5 Raj Minerals

6 John Betts Fine Minerals

7 Gems Art Studio

8 Somethings / Carolyn Lee

9 Malachite & Gems of Africa

10 Margola Corp.

11 Khyber Gemstone

12 Rocko Minerals & Jewelry

13 AYS International

14 James Garriti Lapidary

15 Mahalo Minerals

16 China & South Seas, Inc.

17 Crystal Circle Fine Minerals

18 Howard Schlansker Wholesale Minerals

(Above List Subject to Change)

This Sept. 16, 1969 file photo shows Apollo 11 Astronauts, from left, BuzzAldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong taking a close view of one ofthe moon rocks they brought back to earth.


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they make great gifts!


Excavation for Railyard Project Reveals aHidden Piece of New York CityBy David W. Dunlap

If you think the crush is bad around Pennsylvania Stationthese days, you should have been here 465 million years ago.

“This rock has been subjected to three periods of continentalcollision,” the geologist Sidney Horenstein said, as he stood in arailyard west of the station, examining a wall of gray Manhattanschist with swirls of white pegmatite.

It looked like a giant marble cake. One that has broken manydrill bits.

“The rock was squeezed and squeezed again and squeezedagain,” he said, referring to what happened in the Taconic,Acadian and Alleghenian orogenies. These mountain-buildingevents, hundreds of millions of years ago, shaped North Americaand left fascinating traces in New York City.

Some of those traces have come to light in the railyard overwhich Brookfield Office Properties is developing a mixed-useproject, Manhattan West, beginning with a platform that will coverthe entire yard.

New Jersey Transit and westbound Amtrak passengers knowthis yard well. It offers a glimpse of the city before trains funnelinto the North River Tubes. By the end of the year, passengers willno longer see daylight until they reach North Bergen, N.J.

Brookfield’s project also involves the excavation of bedrockon either side of the tracks, down to about 30 feet, exposinggeological features that have never been seen. So when I wasinvited to watch the assembly of the platform, I asked Mr.Horenstein to come along.

Mr. Horenstein, 77, the environmental educator emeritus ofthe American Museum of Natural History, is a lively guide. Withaffection and humor (“The Bronx is gneiss”), he can make rockscome to life.

“Not a fossilized snake but a folded intrusion,” Mr.Horenstein said of a twisting deposit under 31st Street thatappeared to have been traced from splayed fingers. He marveledat this evidence of compression and deformation from thecollision, or collisions, of the vast plates composing the earth’scrust.

Through Mr. Horenstein’s eyes, Manhattan schist, thebedrock from which the towers of New York rise so confidently,looked as malleable as liquid.

And with good reason. “These were deposits of mud on thesea floor,” Mr. Horenstein said. “Heat and pressure squeezed theselayers and recrystallized them into schist” — after intermediateperiods as shale, slate and phyllite.

The resulting folds are easy to see, because moltenpegmatite penetrated the voids. Pegmatite has a high quartzcontent and thus provides terrific contrast to the dark schist.

Brookfield executives do not look upon pegmatite so kindly.“It is particularly hard on drills and equipment,” said Henry

Caso, the vice president in charge of constructing Manhattan West.From a builder’s point of view, schist and pegmatite are a

blessing as well as a curse. The presence of so much rock permitsBrookfield to proceed with its unusual plan for Manhattan West,a $5 billion project that is to be finished in 2019.

A mixed-use project called Manhattan West is being developed over the West Siderailyard, beginning with a platform that will cover the entire yard. The project hasexposed traces of ancient bedrock.

The project involves the excavation of bedrock on either side of thetracks, exposing geological features that have never been seen.

The new buildings will not sit on the platform, but on the bedrock outcroppingsalong the north and south edges of the railyard.


Office towers are to be built at Ninth Avenue and 31st Streetand at Ninth Avenue and 33rd Street. An apartment building is tobe constructed at Dyer Avenue and 31st Street, opposite a hotel atDyer Avenue and 33rd Street. An existing building over the westend of the yard, 450 West 33rd Street, is to be reclad in glass sothat it conforms with the rest of the complex.

The new buildings will sit not on the platform, but on thebedrock outcroppings along the north and south edges of therailyard. However, parts of the office towers will cantilever overthe platform, which is to become a tree-lined plaza.

The platform is composed of enormous, hollow concretesegments. They are 6 feet wide, 15 to 30 feet long and more than12 feet high. They weigh up to 56 tons each. Thirty-nine of thesesegments are needed to stretch across the whole railyard.

A traveling crane picks up the sections and assembles themon a temporary platform above the tracks. The sections are epoxiedtogether and lashed with steel cables. Pulled taut, these cablescreate so much tension that the sections become a self-supportingstructure, after which the platform can be removed.

By analogy, imagine holding a half-dozen building blockstogether with a tight rubber band. You could turn that stackhorizontally and it would hold.

“Amtrak has reviewed and approved the design ofManhattan West,” said Craig Schulz, a spokesman for the railroad,“and continues to work cooperatively with the developerthroughout construction to ensure the safety and security of ourpassengers is not compromised.”

As we made our way through the yard, however, it seemedthat all the talk of upheavals in the earth’s crust was beginning toget to Mr. Caso.

“You don’t think we’re due for another collision, do you?”he asked Mr. Horenstein.

“Not yet,” the geologist said reassuringly. “Not for another50 million years.”Source: ©New York Times July 3, 2014; Permission to reproduce granted.

Earth’s Most Abundant Mineral, Bridgmanite,Finally Shows Its FaceBy Jeanna Bryner

Earth’s most abundant mineral lies deep in the planet’sinterior, sealed off from human eyes. Now, scientists for the firsttime have gotten a glimpse of the material in nature, enclosedinside a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite. The result: They havecharacterized and named the elusive mineral.

The new official name, bridgmanite, was approved for themineral formerly known by its chemical components and crystalstructure — silicate-perovskite. The magnesium-silicate mineralwas named after Percy Bridgman, a 1946 Nobel Prize-winningphysicist, according to the American Geophysical Union blog.

“It is a very exciting discovery,” Chi Ma of Caltech andOliver Tschauner, of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, toldLive Science in an email. “We finally tracked down naturalsilicate-perovskite (now bridgmanite) in a meteorite after afive-year investigation, and got to name the most abundant mineralon Earth. How cool is that?” [Shine On: Photos of DazzlingMineral Specimens]

The mineral likely resides beneath Earth’s surface in an areacalled the lower mantle, between the transition zone in the mantleand the core-mantle boundary, or between the depths of416 and1,802 miles (670 and 2,900 kilometers), scientists said.

Scientists have been searching for the mineral for a longtime, because in order to identify a mineral one must know itschemical composition and crystal structure, Ma said.

Researchers found the bridgmanite in a meteorite that hadfallen to Earth near the Tenham station in western Queensland,Australia, in 1879. The meteorite, Ma said, is highly shocked,meaning it endured high temperatures and pressures as it slammedinto other rocks in space. Those impacts can create shock veins ofminerals within the meteorites.

“Scientists have identified high-pressure minerals in itsshock-melt veins since 1960s. Now we have identifiedbridgmanite,” Tschauner said, referring to the Tenham meteorite.The meteorite is considered a chondrite, the most common type ofmeteorite found on Earth; scientists think these meteorites areremnants shed from the original building blocks of planets.

Most meteors (which are called meteorites once they strikeEarth) are fragments of asteroids, while others are the cosmic dustdiscarded by comets. Rarely, meteorites represent impact debrisfrom the moon and from Mars.

Ma and Tschauner used various methods to characterize theextracted mineral, including so-called synchrotron X-raydiffraction mapping and high-resolution scanning electronmicroscopy.

After five years of work, including multiple experiments,Ma and Tschauner sent their data for review to the InternationalMineralogical Association’s Commission on New Minerals,Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC), according to theAGU blog. The commission approved the mineral and new nameon June 2.Source: Huffington Post Science June 18, 2014

A rendering of the Manhattan West project.The elusive mineral bridgmanite is shown in a shock melt vein inside a4.5-billion-year-old meteorite found in Queensland, Australia.


2014 Banquet Silent Auction Prices Realized1. Corundum (Ruby) Crystal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62. Corundum (Ruby) Crystal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183. Corundum (Ruby) Gemmy Crystal.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224. Large Ruby in Zoisite Specimen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255. Fluorescent Ruby in Zoisite Specimen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26. (2) Ruby in Zoisite Hearts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137. Ruby in Zoisite Bead Bracelet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308. Ruby in Zoisite Thumbnail.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49. Ruby Crystal in Matrix.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010. Faceted Ruby Pair (0.8 carat).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3311. Faceted Ruby Oval (0.49 carat). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3012. Diamond & Gold (Min Rec). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613. Mexico (Min Rec). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414. (2) Natural Cut Geodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015. Stone & Turquoise Bear Fetish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3016. Large Polished Jade (Nephrite). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1717. Native Copper, etc... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318. Small Mounted Calcite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019. Amethyst/Pearl Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3020. Multicolor Stone Necklace.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1621. Carnelian & Silver Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2222. Stone & Silver Love Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523. Incised Copper Pendant Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1524. Pearl & Crystal Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3225. Colorful Bird Pendant Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126. Emerald & Silver Chain Necklace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1727. Red Coral Beads & Shell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1528. Sodalite in Matrix.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629. Margarite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330. Rock Crystal with Inclusions “Egg”.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131. Crazy Quartz Epimorph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132. Quantity of Herkimer Diamonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1633. Quantity of Herkimer Diamonds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1534. Hiddenite Specimen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035. Hiddenite Specimen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636. (4) Assorted Thumbnails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937. Red Gemmy Spinel Thumbnail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2038. 10X Loup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939. 14X Folding Magnifier.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940. Prehnite & Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2041. Large Pink Gypsum Crystal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642. Vanadinite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143. Brookite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144. Gypsum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645. Calcite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1546. Rubellite Tourmaline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11547. Copper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2548. Malachite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1549. Erythrite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2050. Tremolite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451. Cats Eye Sillimanite Cabochon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552. Ruby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1053. Ruby & Silver Pendant.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4554. Quantity of Blue Zircons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2555. Vanadinite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1056. Hematite & Quartz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1557. Pyrite Cubes in Matrix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2258. Cerussite & etc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759. Light Green Fluorite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1560. Ferberite & etc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161. Chalcopyrite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

62. Azurite & Malachite.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2063. Aegirine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764. Quartz Scepter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665. Tourmaline on Cleavelandite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566. Chrysocolla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167. Opalized (Petrified) Wood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1668. Barite, & etc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6869. Species Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470. Obsidian Totem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1171. Quartz Geode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1072. Box of Hollow Geodes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Metropolitan Museum Plaza RedesignThe Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new David H. Koch

Plaza is officially open to the public (as of September 10, 2014)following a major two-year redesign and reconstruction. Themassive outdoor space—which runs along Fifth Avenue inManhattan for four city blocks, the length of the Museum'slandmark facade—now features completely new fountains, paving,and facade lighting, along with allées and bosques of trees leadingto the Museum's entrances from north and south, and seating areasfor visitors.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Museum,said: “Finally, more than a century after the completion of theMet's grand Fifth Avenue facade, and more than forty years afterits last plaza renovation, the Museum has created a trulywelcoming point of entry, a cityscape that is environmentallyfriendly and that will please our visitors as they come toexperience the unparalleled breadth of masterpieces on displayinside. Rather than finding the complexity of the projectdaunting—from the hauling of granite for new fountains andpaving stones, to the planting of trees and the installation ofhundreds of LED lights, on an area roughly the equivalent size ofthree football fields—David Koch recognized its significance,embraced it, and made it happen.”

The renovation encompasses the entire 1,021-foot-long,70,706-square foot plaza. The granite for the fountains werequarried in Le Granit, Canada, and for the paving stones inDeer Isle, Maine. 62,935 cubic feet of soil were installed and 106trees planted, doubling the number of trees on the plaza andproviding 17,600 square feet of shade.Source: Excerpted from several online news services and sites.

Africa Is Literally Splitting In HalfBy Jonathan Feldman

In 10 million years, we might have two Half-ricas, accordingto a new study by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and theUniversity of California at San Diego. But this isn’t the doing of


some Nikola Tesla-esque mad scientist and a world splitting superweapon; in fact it’s due to a superplume, a massive upwelling ofmolten rock slowly splitting the African tectonic plate in two.

Plumes of magma have long been thought to move thecontinents around, at least since 1912 when Alfred Wegener said

that Africa and South Americalooked like they kind of fittogether. But in East Africa,scientists have only recentlybegun to precisely figure outwhy two massive chunks ofland are separating by a fewmillimeters every year.

David Hilton and histeam of researchers fromScripps visited volcanoes onboth sides of the Great RiftValley and collected gassamples to invest igate.

Scientists previously thought that two separate, smaller plumeswere responsible for the gradual widening of the valley in EastAfrica, but Hilton and his team found that the chemistry andphysics told another story.

Hilton’s team examined the rocks found on the two plateausbordering the valley, the Ethiopia Dome and the Kenya Dome. Totest their theory that there is in fact only one, large plume splittingthe African landscape, the researchers looked inside the rocks forhelium-3 and neon-22, specific forms of helium and neon gas thatcould shine light onto how the plateaus were formed.

The Scripps researchers discovered that the ratios of neon-22gas to helium-3 gas were identical in both sets of rock samples,and confirmed the hypothesis that the two plateaus – and therefore,the rift – are caused by one massive plume of magma in the Earth’smantle.

Luckily, Africans won’t have to worry about their land beingtorn apart, at least not immediately. While ebola wreaks havocacross West Africa, the residents of East Africa have about 50million years to plan for the new ocean that the superplume willcreate. Source: huffingtonpost.com August 8, 2014

Nasa Reveals 2020 Mars Rover Will SportMachine to Generate Oxygen, Better RadarBy Alexandre Witze

The rover that NASA is sending to Mars in 2020 will carryseven instruments geared to choosing just the right rocks to collectand store for future return to Earth. They include several firsts forMars, including a zoomable camera, a machine to generate oxygenfrom carbon dioxide, and radar to explore geology up to half akilometer deep.

The instruments, announced 31 July from a pool of 58competitors, are in some ways a very different collection than whatthe Curiosity rover is currently trundling around Mars with.Curiosity does most of its chemistry on its back, by scooping upsamples of soil or rock and dumping them into various instrumentsto analyze. The 2020 rover, which is otherwise modeled heavily onCuriosity, drops many of those analytical abilities and insteadfocuses on selecting samples that might be studied one day backon Earth. At 40 kilograms, the weight of its science payload willbe actually less than that of Curiosity.

John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science,confirmed that the 2020 rover would carry a small ‘caching’system for future sample return. Details have yet to be worked out,but it will likely collect slender, pencil-sized cylinders of rock and

tuck them into a canister for future missions to retrieve. “Iwouldn’t rule out the possibility that it’s a future astronaut thatpicks up the sample and returns it to Earth,” said Grunsfeld, inoptimistic speculation given current funding for NASA. “But themost important step is to find samples that are so compelling thatwe need to get them back.”

NASA has yet to determine exactly where the US$1.9billion rover will land. But it is likely to aim for a spot with a widevariety of geological features nearby. Curiosity has been plaguedby landing more than 10 kilometers from its ultimate goal, amountain named Mount Sharp, and having to drive all that way toget to it. (The rover still has several kilometers to go.) The longdrive and sharper-than-expected rocks have pummeled the thinaluminum sheeting on Curiosity’s wheels, tearing huge holes;engineers are testing new designs and new materials in hopes ofkeeping the 2020 rover from suffering the same problem.

The 2020 rover will need to trade off the time spent drivingto find samples and the time spent drilling and collecting them,says Kenneth Farley, a geologist at the California Institute ofTechnology in Pasadena and the mission’s project scientist.

Curiosity was originally supposed to carry athree-dimensional zoom camera on its mast, developed withfilmmaker James Cameron, but NASA pulled it from the manifest.The 2020 rover tries to compensate with a zoom camera developedby planetary scientist James Bell of Arizona State University. Theability to zoom should allow the rover to move more quickly alongthe surface, because it can more easily scrutinize distant rocks andbetter calculate potential hazards before it starts moving in aparticular direction, said Michael Meyer, NASA’s lead scientist forthe Mars exploration program.

The oxygen-making machine comes from NASA’s humanexploration side, and is a step towards demonstrating whetherastronauts could generate resources they need on the Martiansurface, said William Gerstenmaier, head of the agency’s humanexploration program. Going by the peppy acronym MOXIE, it willaim to measure the efficiency of producing oxygen from carbondioxide in the Martian atmosphere.

Other instruments include an X-spectrometer and anultraviolet laser, both targeted to studying the mineralogy of rocksin high resolution, and a camera that can probe for organiccompounds. “Every single instrument is either improved [frompast missions] or we haven’t sent it to Mars before,” said Meyer.

Two instruments will be operated by non-US scientists. Theground-penetrating radar will be led by radar expert Svein-ErikHamran, of the Forsvarets Forskning Institute in Norway. Themeteorological package on the rover’s mast will be run by roboticsengineer José Rodríguez-Manfredi of the Center for Astrobiologyin Madrid, the same group that provided the weather instrumentsfor Curiosity. Source: Nature (online) from August 4, 2014

Africa will split apart in the distant future. NASA’s 2020 Mars rover will collect samples for future return to Earth.


2014-5 Club Calendar

Date Event Location Remarks & Information

November 12 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn MidtownSpecial Lecture: Sidney Horenstein – “BalticBrown, A Special Building Stone”

December 10 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn MidtownSpecial Lecture: John Sanfaçon – “WorldwideCrown Jewels”

January 14, 2015 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn MidtownSpecial Lecture: Mitch Portnoy – “Malachite”;Malachite (Chinese) Auction – New!!

January 18 (?) Annual Benefit Sale (?) Upper West Side, Manhattan Details to Follow

February 11 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn Midtown Members’ Show & Tell

March 11 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn MidtownSpecial Lecture: Alfredo Petrov –“Pseudomorphs – False Forms of Minerals”

April 8 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn MidtownSpecial Lecture: Jamie Kruse (Artist) – “NYCis a Geologic Force”

May 13 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn MidtownSpecial Lecture: Renée Newman – “ExoticGems and the Jewelry Business Today”

June 10 Benefit Auction Holiday Inn Midtown, Mezz C 100+ diverse lots, not to be missed!

July/August Tentative Club Events TBD Details to Follow

September 9 Meeting at 6:45 Holiday Inn Midtown Details to Follow

October 7 Annual Banquet Holiday Inn Midtown Details to Follow

2014 Show or Event Calendar

Date Event Location Remarks & Information

November 8-9Fall New York City Gem,Mineral & Fossil Show

Grand Ballroom, Holiday InnMidtown, New York City

20+ diverse dealers; lectures; wholesalesection (with credentials); Club Booth

November 29-30 Rock & Mineral Weekend Morris Museum, Morristown, NJLectures, Exhibits, Mineral ID, Mineral Magic!Information: 973.971.3718

January 2015 United Nations’ International Year of Light Begins!

Early February 2015 Tucson Shows Tucson, Arizona Temporary Mineral & Gem World Capital!

February 14-15Annual Capital District Gem,Mineral & Fossil Show

New York State Museum, EmpirePlaza, Albany, New York

Contact: Michael Hawkins [email protected]

March 7-8Spring New York City Gem,Mineral & Fossil Show

Grand Ballroom, Holiday InnMidtown, New York City

20+ diverse dealers; lectures; wholesalesection (with credentials); Club Booth

March 27-29 EFMLS Convention/Show Hickory, North Carolina Article Contest Results; Details to Follow

October 23-24 AFMS Convention/Show Austin, Texas Details to Follow

Mineral Clubs & Other InstitutionsIf you would like your mineral show included here, please let us know at least 2-3 months in advance!

Also, for more extensive national and regional show information check online:AFMS Website: http://www.amfed.org and/or the EFMLS Website: http://www.amfed.org/efmls

George F. KunzFounder

The New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.Founded in 1886 for the purpose of increasing interest in the science of mineralogy through

the collecting, describing and displaying of minerals and associated gemstones.P.O. Box 77, Planetarium Station, New York City, New York, 10024-0077, http://www.nymineralclub.org

2014 Executive CommitteePresident Mitchell Portnoy 46 W. 83rd Street #2E, NYC, NY, 10024-5203 e-mail: [email protected].. . . . . . . . . . . (212) 580-1343

Vice President Anna Schumate 27 E. 13th Street, Apt. 5F, NYC, NY, 10003 e-mail: [email protected]. . (646) 737-3776

Secretary Vivien Gornitz 101 W. 81st Street #621, NYC, NY, 10024 e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . . . . (212) 874-0525

Treasurer Diane Beckman 265 Cabrini Blvd. #2B, NYC, NY, 10040 e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . . . . (212) 927-3355

Bulletin Editor Mitchell Portnoy 46 W. 83rd Street #2E, NYC, NY, 10024-5203 e-mail: [email protected].. . . . . . . . . . . (212) 580-1343

Membership Mark Kucera 25 Cricklewood Road S., Yonkers, NY, 10704 e-mail: [email protected].. . . . . (914) 423-8360

Director Richard Rossi 6732 Ridge Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY, 11220 e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . . . . . (718) 745-1876

Director Alla Priceman 84 Lookout Circle, Larchmont, NY, 10538 e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . . (914) 834-6792

Director Sam Waldman 2801 Emmons Ave, #1B, Brooklyn, NY, 11235 e-mail: [email protected]. . . . . . . . (718) 332-0764

Dues: $25 Individual, $35 Family per calendar year. Meetings: 2nd Wednesday of every month (except July and August) at the Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan, 57 Streetth

between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, New York City, New York. Meetings will generally be held in one of the conference rooms on the Mezzanine Level. The doors openat 5:30 P.M. and the meeting starts at 6:45 P.M. (Please watch for any announced time / date changes.) This bulletin is published monthly by the New York MineralogicalClub, Inc. The submission deadline for each month’s bulletin is the 20th of the preceding month. You may reprint articles or quote from this bulletin for non-profit usageonly provided credit is given to the New York Mineralogical Club and permission is obtained from the author and/or Editor. The Editor and the New York MineralogicalClub are not responsible for the accuracy or authenticity of information or information in articles accepted for publication, nor are the expressed opinions necessarily thoseof the officers of the New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.

Next Meeting – Wednesday, November 8, 2014 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Mezzanine, Holiday Inn Midtown Manhattan (57 St. & Tenth Avenue), New York Cityth

Special Lecture: Sidney Horenstein — “Baltic Brown”

New York Mineralogical Club, Inc.Mitchell Portnoy, Bulletin EditorP.O. Box 77, Planetarium StationNew York City, New York 10024-0077

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